Eking out a Birding! End of March 2021

For the first time for in a while, or so it seemed, I was actually busy at work. It's fairly typical that after a long period of sporadic employment I now had a full diary for the foreseeable future just at the time when the spring migration of birds gets into full swing. So it was to the weekends that I was eagerly looking forward to, for some respite, and would be for a while. Having said that my own workload is subject to many factors that can upset the schedule so by the following week I'd probably be back to the "new normal" as opposed to the "old normal" that so many of us crave for. Coincidentally Lockdown rules were being relaxed on the 29th of March which would allow more travelling again and which would allow us, and lots of other like-minded folk, the chance to see some birds at other places outside of our home county, so we may yet get the opportunity to see the Mockingbird and Rustic Bunting that we have so wanted since the start of this year.

A Black Redstart had been found at Chinnor during the week and amazingly was joined by another on Friday. The birds were frequenting a new housing estate on the edge of an old cement works and quarry which has attracted Black Redstarts on several occasions over the past few years so it seems to be quite a place for them. After finishing work on Friday we drove over to look for the birds and drew a predictable blank! I contacted a friend of mine that evening and he said that he'd give me an early update on the Saturday morning if the bird or birds were still present. With few other options on offer we had already set off to have another look for ourselves and had just parked up when Jez called me to say that he'd just seen a male Black Redstart on the roof of the favoured house. We joined him on the edge of the Quarry nature reserve less than five minutes later, the bird had flown off of course but at least we knew it was still present. After a socially distanced chat, Jez left us to check out the Old Kiln area where a female Black Redstart had been seen the day before. We stayed, scanning the roofs of the houses for any birds but in the next half hour only saw some Pied Wagtails, never big friends of Black Redstarts, and the ubiquitous Red Kites flying overhead. Birding around houses is never easy. There are an infinite number of places that birds can hide undetected and there is also the feeling of intruding on peoples personal space when looking fir them. We intended to leave quickly once (if) we'd seen the Black Redstarts and within another half hour anyway if one didn't appear. We were in luck though when ten minutes later Mrs Caley spotted the fine male Black Redstart adorning the roof ridge of a house a few doors down the road from where Jez had spotted it earlier. Black Redstarts had given us the runaround this year so far and this was our fourth attempt at seeing one so it felt good to finally add it to our year list.

male Black Redstart

I let Jez know that we'd seen it and prepared to leave. As we walked back to the pavement from the nature reserve another Black Redstart popped up on the roof of the nearest house. Birds can be like buses sometimes! This was the female type and it posed for a couple of minutes on a chimney stack, for just long enough that Jez connected as well.

female Black Redstart

Instead of going straight back to the car we decided to explore the nature reserve for a while. With the old cement works gone a large area of the quarries and surrounding ground have been recreated into a fine looking reserve. It attracts a lot of folk not particularly interested in the nature, dog walkers as is common these days were everywhere, but if you live close by then it offers some great potential to the birdwatcher and Jez and other locals have already amassed a fine bird list there. Although we didn't see an awful lot as we walked, we did find a lovely Yellowhammer singing from one of the hedgerows.

male Yellowhammer

We know of a place in the area where Firecrests can be found so we took the twenty minute drive north to the wood near Wendover. Firecrests are not the easiest birds to see because of their habit of utilising the very tops of some pretty tall conifer trees for feeding. Occasionally they descend lower to feed in Holly trees. You need keen ears to locate them by their high pitched shrill calls and tinnitus sufferers like myself find it more than difficult. Luckily Mrs Caley has sharp hearing and after wandering for a while under the Firs she found one of the little sprites energetically searching for food in the fronds of a Conifer. We spotted another nearby and that bird very dutifully obliged by using a Birch tree as a stepping stone between two conifers. Photos were easier to obtain in the bare Birch but still a bit tricky to track such a small bird that was probably twenty metres up a tree.

Firecrest

In the absence of anything better to do we retraced our steps and drove back past Chinnor, resisted the urge to have another look for the Black Redstarts, and headed up to Linkey Down for a walk. Linkey Down is one of Oxfordshires prime locations for catching up with migrating Ring Ouzels and will usually host a few, both in spring and autumn, for a few days. But it was still a bit early in the calendar for them and none were evident, although some had been reported from other localities in neighbouring counties. We'd need to return in a couple of weeks. While on the Chiltern ridge however, we were treated to a continuous display from Red Kites and Buzzards which were gearing up ready for their breeding season.

Common Buzzard

Red Kite

Ravens are also plentiful on the ridge, they are encountered reasonably regularly in all parts of Oxon now, and we watched at least four use the updrafts to swoop and soar. Ravens are impressive birds, a portent of doom in folklore, as big as Buzzards and are masters of the air. For a patently amateur photographer like myself Ravens present a problem because settings have to be altered in order to get distinct images of the dark bird against the lighter sky. Despite the fact that two of the birds were flying very close to us I still managed to make a mess of most of my opportunities. It was a thrill to watch them though.

Raven

We returned home for a restful afternoon but I noticed that quite a few Wheatears had been seen in the county. Three of the Wheatears had been seen at Barford Airfield, reasonably close to home, and a place where I'd seen a Dotterel in the past, that was a while ago though so I contacted Kyle for some more info on the access to the site. We headed up to the airfield, a military installation which is still active, later in the afternoon. The weather had turned increasingly cold and windy, making for a bracing walk. Most of the site is out of bounds to the public but there is a footpath that runs around the perimeter of the airfield. We tentatively followed the path, there was nobody else around, and checked out the fields where we could. I saw a Corn Bunting fly into a small tree along with some Meadow Pipits that had been feeding next to manure pile.

Corn Bunting

Becoming a little anxious, as I am prone to do, actually it's more impatience than anxiety, I called Kyle again. Earlier he had mentioned that he wanted to see a Corn Bunting so I had suggested that he checked out Lower Heyford which has always been a reliable area for them. After asking about the Wheatears again, we had further to walk apparently, I casually mentioned that I'd just seen a Corn Bunting. Having not found any at Lower Heyford he said he was on his way! We followed the track downhill to another open field area. Kyle had said that the Wheatears were frequenting an area next to a grassy mound so I set up my scope and surveyed the area next to that mound, which laid at the end of the field. The Wheatears, two males and a female, were blatantly obvious! A few minutes later we were stood alongside the hump. One of the male birds was feeding quite close to the fence by which we stood, the other two were hunkered down against the wind somewhat further out in the field.

Wheatear, male (top) & female (bottom)

After taking a few more shots of the closest male Wheatear we returned to the car, and met Kyle walking in from the parking area. I put him on to the bush that the Corn Bunting had been perched in, it had disappeared but would soon return so he got his bird. While we discussed proceedings he then trumped us good and proper by announcing that he'd seen an Osprey flying up the Cherwell Valley while searching for the Corn Buntings earlier. Seeing Ospreys in Oxfordshire is a very hit and miss affair and we are very good at missing. I don't usually panic about seeing Ospreys because we normally holiday in Scotland in June but I doubt that we'd be going there again this year so I felt well and truly gripped by his sighting!

With a lot of distractions going on in the background, we made a half-hearted trip to Farmoor on the Sunday morning. It was a typical grey and overcast day which somewhat matched my mood. We saw very little of note although Sand Martin and Swallow were year ticks. A small flock of 6 female Goldeneye lingered on. A Sandwich Tern was seen by the pontoon at the western end of the causeway, we'd sat there for half an hour earlier but we were on the far side of F1 when it was seen. By the time we returned to the pontoon the Tern had left. As we reached the marina the Sarnie put in another appearance. I slammed the car door shut.